Ok, so right now, any new users to steam have to download and install steam, and then register/login. They then have to go find their friends, only to realize that they can't without buying a game from Steam. Steam claims to do this purely to stop SPAMMERS and PHISHERS from annoying friendly-hearted steam users who want to use Steam without getting tons of invites from people they don't know to chat with them. If this is TRULY a method of stopping spammers from chatting with others, then perhaps expand this so that you're still stopping the spammers but not hurting other people who just want to use Steam like it's meant to be used.

I am in a gaming community in which many users are starting to use steam because of the game Call of Duty Black Ops. Half of us can talk using Steam, and the other half who aren't old enough to buy over the internet and don't want to buy games/don't have money to buy games, sit around just chatting on our forums and can't see what games we're playing and such.

I propose that there be an option for people who have registered Groups in Steam to be able to ONLY INVITE Limited Steam users to join. Or, since you can already be a limited user and join a group, just make it so that the Group Administrators can UNLOCK the Limited Users only within their Group. Once they join/are unlocked they can only talk to people in the group, not everyone else in Steam.

Providing this option will allow gaming communities to create Groups on Steam which will be open to only people they invite(ie. community members). Opening up this tiny hole won't give way to any spammers but will help tons with people who just want to use Steam to communicate with friends without needing to buy a game from Steam.

Thanks for reading my idea and I hope you Steam Developers will make this happen.

Don't want to buy games as in only want games than aren't Steam Supported.
And why would anyone want to pay any amount of money to chat with friends when they can just use other free stuff. Adding this to Steam would just make things much easier as everyone in my community can use the same chat system.

"Sounds like a lot of work" ??? It's a job isn't it. Work is expected. It's not pointless work, its improvement work.

Not doing makes it look more like they're trying to get people to buy games from them more than trying to stop spammers.

They want to use Steam so that we're all on the same system. So instead of improving Steam you want to kick users out who don't buy games. Steam isn't just about buying games. It's a game library and a way to talk with friends. Have such limits on accounts isn't the best option, but adding this will make it much better.

But you're talking about people who don't want Steam games and want any games on their Steam library. That is so unreasonable.

If you refuse to be a Steam customer, then you should not expect to be served. They are right to do this to prevent too many spammers. Making you pay to avail of exclusive Steam features requires that spammers spend every time they want to create a new account.

The way spammers work, on person can make hundreds of dummy accounts just to harass people on Steam. They can have disposable accounts to launch attacks at legitimate customers.

You shouldn't feel sorry for the children who can't go on Steam's chat. It's a privilege, not a God given right. Valve doesn't want everybody on their systems. They only want the paying customers. When you become a customer for a mere three dollars http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6016/, you can finally avail of the full services of Steam.

Adding this small thing WONT help spammers any. They will still have to pay to spam. Just allow Groups to Unlock Limited Users within their group so that they can be full users only within the Group.

"They only want the paying customers."
If you think this is true, then why do they say EVERYWHERE that this is just to stop people from spamming. By saying that, you're saying Valve is lying to our faces.

"Indeed, get a cheap game, it's not that hard."
It's hard for some people though. Why punish more people than needed? This service started Free right? This is kind of like bombing a city full of civilians just to kill one terrorist...

They can add limited account to friends but the limited account can't accept and they can't talk to each other even if they were friends back before everything was free and now tried because they are limited.

What's in it for Valve? Making the Steam System better. What's the use of steam Groups if you have to pay to use them. Steam was originally set up to provide people with easy way to buy games and play anywhere, while talking with friends and making groups that clans/communities of people can use to add everyone as a friend at once. Adding this simple thing would make it better, make their "accounts turn limited to stop spammers" statement seem more real rather than what I looks like from outside people, "accounts turn limited to get more money from people by forcing them to buy games through Steam."

They can add limited account to friends but the limited account can't accept and they can't talk to each other even if they were friends back before everything was free and now tried because they are limited.

What's in it for Valve? Making the Steam System better. What's the use of steam Groups if you have to pay to use them. Steam was originally set up to provide people with easy way to buy games and play anywhere, while talking with friends and making groups that clans/communities of people can use to add everyone as a friend at once. Adding this simple thing would make it better, make their "accounts turn limited to stop spammers" statement seem more real rather than what I looks like from outside people, "accounts turn limited to get more money from people by forcing them to buy games through Steam."

They can add limited account to friends but the limited account can't accept and they can't talk to each other even if they were friends back before everything was free and now tried because they are limited."

What's the point of the limited account if they can't talk to friends or even use friends?
Since they don't want to add games & cannot use the friends feature, why bother having limited accounts then?

Everything was not free with steam before, other than creating an account that had full community access.
Now they have prevented that to decrease the scamming. Which it does do.